


no proof not much (but you saw enough)

by becasbelt



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: Based on a Taylor Swift Song, F/F, Fluff, like so much fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:42:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21994684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/becasbelt/pseuds/becasbelt
Summary: Beca and Chloe weren’t in love… but at the same time, they kind of were.A look into Beca and Chloe’s time living in New York together, inspired by Taylor Swift’s “You Are In Love”.
Relationships: Chloe Beale/Beca Mitchell
Comments: 16
Kudos: 187





	no proof not much (but you saw enough)

**Author's Note:**

> Every time I listen to "You Are In Love" by good 'ol T-Swift, all I can think about is Bechloe. I really just couldn't help but write a little something with it in mind... and then it turned out much lengthier than I expected. Every section is based on one or two lines from the song, so let me know if you can tell what each part's lyrics are. Or don't. You can all do whatever you want.
> 
> Also this is a little Christmassy, with a touch of New Year's. So there's that, too.
> 
> Anyway.
> 
> Enjoy the fluff!

Time moves too fast, in Chloe’s opinion. It’s why she always takes pictures of the things going on in her life. It’s why she stayed at Barden for three extra years, trying to ignore the real world and remain a Bella for as long as possible. It’s why when Beca asks her if she wants to move to New York with her, she says yes.

Chloe never planned on living in New York; it’s never really been a dream of hers like it is for so many people. But when Beca tells her that she got a job offer from a studio there and she needs a roommate in order to afford rent-

Well, it’s not like she had any other plans worked out.

So Beca and Chloe, along with a last minute addition of Amy (“So when’s the moving van getting here, Shortstack?” “Why do you need to know… and why is all your stuff in garbage bags?” “Didn’t I mention that I was coming with you? Could’ve sworn we’d talked about it.”), pack up all their belongings and head to The Big Apple to live in a tiny studio apartment where there’s no separate bathroom and only one real bed, in a neighborhood that definitely has frequent gang-related activity.

Chloe never expected to move to New York.

But she’s with Beca, so she can’t imagine her life going any other way.

* * *

“Okay, I think that’s _finally_ the last of the dishes put away,” Chloe says, settling heavily into one of the chairs at their tiny kitchen table. She wipes a stray hair that’s escaped from her ponytail away from her face and looks over at Beca, who’s sitting slumped by the bags containing her clothes. “How’s unpacking your clothes going, Bec?”

Beca lurches up at the sound of her name and focuses her bleary eyes on Chloe. “Uh,” she looks down at the various articles of clothing littered about around her. “…it’s going.”

Chloe sighs and glances at the time on her phone. Nearly midnight. She looks around the little apartment and takes note of all the things still left to unpack: bathroom supplies, bedding, various décor. Between getting everything settled with their new landlord, unloading everything from the moving truck, and just the general excitement about being in a new place, it took them much longer than they had anticipated to unpack all of their stuff. And the fact that Amy mysteriously disappeared halfway through the process to “meet up with her cousin” didn’t help at all.

Chloe looks at the time again, and then stands up to start putting on her coat. Beca stares up at her, confusion evident on her face. “Where are you going?” she asks.

“ _I’m_ not going anywhere,” Chloe tells her, throwing a jacket at Beca. Beca flinches as the fabric hits her square in the face. “ _We,_ however, are going to get some food. We’ve been at this for hours, we haven’t bought any groceries yet, and I honestly don’t think we can get much more done in this state.”

Beca nods her head emphatically and starts putting her arms through her jacket. “Deal,” she glares at her clothes in disdain. “But I’m getting coffee, and you can’t judge me for it.”

*

They find a cute, little diner a few blocks from their apartment. Despite being in the city that never sleeps, there aren’t a lot of people there when they arrive. There’s an old man eating a sandwich in a corner booth, a small group of high school-aged kids who look like they’re just finishing up at a middle table, and a lady at the countertop typing on her laptop.

Beca and Chloe pick a booth, and as soon as they sit down a waitress comes over to get their drink orders. They both choose to get coffee, despite the late hour. When the waitress rushes off to get them their drinks, Chloe notices that Beca’s staring at her.

“What are you staring at me for, weirdo?” Chloe asks her, smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

“Nothing, it’s just-“ Beca’s cut off by the waitress returning to fill their orders of coffee. They both smile at her in gratitude and Chloe cups her hands around her steaming mug, turning her attention back to Beca. “It’s just,” Beca begins again, “your necklace.”

Chloe glances down at the gold chain around her neck with a little pendant attached to it. Beca had given all the Bellas identical ones right before graduation with a grumbled, “Don’t make this a big deal. It’s not a big deal.”

“What about it?” Chloe inquires, chuckling in confusion.

Beca smiles, eyes still on the necklace. “I’m just glad that you like it enough to wear it, is all.” She reveals softly, and Chloe melts. Before the moment becomes too sincere, Beca clears her throat and says, “And the light is reflecting off the chain and into my eyes, so thanks for being so inconsiderate.”

Chloe shakes her head a bit and laughs, lifting her cup of coffee up to her face. She looks at Beca over the rim of her mug and sees amusement in her eyes as well. Chloe smiles and takes a sip from her coffee, suddenly feeling really good about New York.

* * *

Chloe is sitting bundled up in her and Beca’s pull-out bed with the covers pulled all the way up to her chin when Beca gets home from work. Beca looks at her questioningly as she shuts the door behind her. “Everything alright, Chlo?”

Chloe just shrugs her shoulders and continues to stare at the spot on the bed that she’s been staring at for the past half hour.

Beca’s presses her lips together and hums a tune under her breath while she starts going about her “just got home” routine. She slips off her coat and shoes by the door, hangs her bag over the back of a kitchen chair, and dumps leftover coffee down the sink before joining Chloe on the bed. Beca slips under the covers and stares at Chloe for a moment.

Chloe remains silent.

A sigh escapes Beca at Chloe’s continued silence. “I know you want to tell me what’s wrong,” Beca says, mock exasperation in her tone. “Am I going to have to tickle it out of you, or will you tell me on your own?” Beca reaches under the covers to wiggle her fingers by Chloe’s sides to emphasize her point. Chloe twists away from the threatening fingers, façade breaking just the slightest.

Beca chuckles a little before becoming more serious. She retracts her hand and leans forward so she can see Chloe’s face. “Seriously, what’s the matter? Anything I can do to help?”

Tears start to well up in Chloe’s eyes at Beca’s obvious concern. She takes a shaky breath and buries her face in her bended knees before speaking. “I don’t know what I’m doing,” she mumbles.

Beca’s eyebrows scrunch together and confusion laces her voice when she says, “You don’t know what you’re doing… right now? Or, you don’t know what you’re doing in a general sense, or-“

“I don’t know what I’m doing with my life, Beca!” Chloe bursts suddenly, interrupting Beca’s questions. Beca’s mouth snaps shut and she looks at Chloe with wide, concerned eyes. “I thought I was ready to move on from college, but we’ve been here what, a month? And I still don’t know exactly it is that I’m supposed to be doing here!” Tears are falling down Chloe’s face, but she doesn’t care enough to try to wipe them away.

“Well, what about your job at the diner?” Beca starts hesitantly. “That’s something, isn’t it?”

Chloe shakes her head furiously. “No, that’s just-just some stupid day job that helps pay the rent and keeps me busy while you’re out living your dream life with your dream job in your dream city.” Chloe rubs her hands up and down her legs as she takes a steadying breath. “I’m not mad at you for doing what you’ve always wanted to do,” she says, quieter now. Chloe finally looks over at Beca. “It’s just… you’re living your dream right now, and I don’t even _have_ a dream. I just wish that I could figure out what I want in life so that I can feel like I have some sort of purpose again. The Bellas were all I had for so long that now I don’t even know who I am without them.”

Chloe finishes her thoughts with a defeated slump of her shoulders. She’s had these fears living in her mind for a while now, probably since her first senior year. Along with the fears, there are ghosts from her past telling her that she’ll never be able to make it in the real world; college professors who shake their head disapprovingly, aunts and uncles judging from afar. Sometimes Chloe even feels like her own parents don’t know what to do with her anymore.

“You love animals,” Beca says suddenly, interrupting Chloe’s internal self-pity.

Chloe blinks once. “What?” she questions, not understanding where Beca’s out of the blue statement came from.

“You love animals,” Beca repeats with more conviction. “Every time you see a video of a cat, or a dog, or a baby pig, or _whatever_ animal it happens to be, you get this smile on your face that’s so big I always think it’s going to split it right in half.” Beca jostles Chloe’s shoulder a little, which gets Chloe to let out a watery laugh. “Maybe you should consider doing something with animals? Like, I don’t know… an animal shelter person? Or a vet? Or-or!” Beca gets excited suddenly, “you could train circus animals! Think about it, Chlo: you could just hang around with big, scary animals all day, but you’d be, like, their _master_ so you wouldn’t have to be afra-“

Beca cuts herself off with an _oof_ as a result of Chloe throwing her arms around her, her face burrowing into Beca’s neck. Chloe feels Beca’s arms wrap around her a moment later, and she feels the tension in her body start to melt away. “You’re a genius, Beca Mitchell,” she whispers.

She feels more than hears Beca chuckle quietly before saying, “Not a genius. Just your typical, average-intelligenced person trying to help out her best friend. And hey,” Beca pushes Chloe back gently so that she can look into her eyes, “Just because I’ve known what I’ve wanted for years, doesn’t mean that you have to. Lots of people don’t know what they want for a long, long time. You’re the strongest, smartest, most capable person I know. Whatever you end up doing, I know you’ll be great at it.”

Chloe fights the urge to cry again and instead just sinks back into the warm, comforting embrace of her best friend. Maybe it was time to let go of her fears and her ghosts.

* * *

Beca and Chloe always take advantage of the weekends. It’s the only time all week that they get to spend any kind of prolonged time with each other, what with Beca’s job often keeping her at work until late, and Chloe’s new internship at a veterinary clinic sapping all of her free time and energy as well.

Plus, Amy is usually gone to one place or another during the weekends, which is an added bonus.

Chloe wakes on this particular Sunday to the smell of something burning. She stretches her arms across the bed space next to her, expecting to come in contact with a warm body, but instead all her hands hit are cold sheets. Chloe sits up, confused as to why Beca Mitchell was up before she was, but finds her answer as soon as she looks in the kitchen.

Beca is standing by the stove, waving an oven mitt over a slightly smoking pan and muttering “shit shit shit” under her breath. Chloe thinks the food in the pan might be eggs, but at this point she really can’t tell because of the state they’re in.

“So I see that becoming a chef was never a dream of yours,” Chloe teases the struggling brunette, causing said brunette to turn and glare in her direction.

“I was _trying_ to do something nice for you,” Beca grumbles, “but it seems that you’re not a very appreciative gift recipient.”

Chloe giggles and climbs out of bed. She pulls on one of Beca’s old flannel shirts that she stole from her back at Barden and makes her way over to the kitchen. Beca eyes her wearily as she approaches. “I assure you that I am one-hundred percent,” Chloe drawls, wrapping her arms around Beca’s middle from behind, “grateful for all the effort you’ve apparently put forth this morning. Thank you.”

Beca mutters something about not believing her, but leans into Chloe’s touch anyways. Chloe watches her push the charred eggs (confirmed) around the pan for a minute before she notices a few pieces of burnt toast stacked on a plate by the toaster. Giggling again, Chloe leans to the side a bit to retrieve a slice and take a bite. “I think you may have a real talent for cooking, Bec.”

Beca rolls her eyes and grumbles, but Chloe can see a small smile threatening to break through the grumpy façade. Chloe squeezes her tighter and continues to eat her toast, a smile on her own face.

* * *

“And over there are recording booths.”

“Ooooh.”

“And that’s the break room.”

“Woooow.”

“And that’s my office.”

“Your office!”

Beca starts a bit at the excitement and surprise in Chloe’s voice. “Uh, yeah. We all have offices here, dude. Not that exciting. Okay so over we have-“

“Beca!” Beca really jumps this time, turning to face Chloe. Chloe grabs Beca’s hand and starts pulling her towards her office. “You _have_ to show me your office. This is non-negotiable.”

Beca groans. “Fine, but it’s really not all that great.”

Chloe shoots her a look that says “humor me”, so Beca shuts her mouth and opens the door.

Beca’s office really is small and uneventful. She’s got a single desk with a computer, some important looking papers, and an impressive collection of used coffee mugs on it against one wall, a sound system set up against another wall, and a window with a view of the side of the neighboring building.

Chloe takes in the entire space in about thirty seconds, but bounces over to the desk to get a closer look anyways. She holds up one of the coffee mugs to Beca with a judgmental eyebrow raised, to which Beca blushes and mumbles something about meaning to clean those up a while ago. Chloe’s eyes do another scan of the desk’s surface and she spots a lone picture frame in the corner of the desk. Intrigued, she picks it up.

The picture is from one of their first nights living in New York, a few months ago. It’s of Chloe sat on their pull-out bed, laughing at something beyond the camera. Chloe remembers Beca taking it from her spot at the kitchen table while Amy entertained Chloe with some insane story about how she ran around in a flamingo flock in Tasmania before authorities showed up and put a stop to it. Beca had uploaded it to Instagram with a cheesy caption about liking New York, but Chloe had no idea she’d had it printed out.

She turns towards Beca, picture in hand. Beca blushes again when she sees what Chloe’s holding.

“Sometimes I miss you when I’m at work,” Beca mumbles, avoiding eye contact. “It’s not a big deal.”

Chloe’s heart swells and she immediately puts down the picture before rushing to Beca and showering her face with kisses, Beca protesting vehemently and threatening her the whole time.

* * *

Beca lets out a frustrated groan. “We can’t just _kick her out._ Where else would she go?”

Chloe rolls her eyes. “She would figure something out. It’s not like she’s ever here, anyways! Maybe she could live wherever the hell it is she spends all of her time.”

The subject of their fight is, once again, not home at the moment. Earlier in the evening Amy had asked Beca for some cash so that she could “party to get over her heartache about Bumper.” Chloe had watched, dumbfounded, as Beca had _actually_ gone along with it, handing a wad of cash to the Aussie and telling her to make good choices. As soon as Amy left, Chloe had snapped.

She was tired of Amy leeching off the two of them all the time. Amy did nothing to contribute to the cost of rent and utilities, she was constantly borrowing and stealing money from them, and she took up half of the apartment with all her stuff _even though she wasn’t home half the time._

Beca, of course, was completely against the idea of kicking Amy out. They were best friends, after all… aside from Chloe, of course. Amy had always been there for Beca, through thick and thin, so Beca couldn’t rationalize kicking her to the curb.

And now here they were, fighting. They didn’t fight often, but they spent nearly all of their free time together, so of course they were bound to fight at least once in a while. Just like at the retreat, their arguments tended to get pretty heated.

“If you’re tired of her borrowing money from you, then you don’t have to let her anymore!” Beca argues, hands flying about in exasperation. “You can just send her to get money from me! She’s been taking money from me for years; I’m used to it!”

“It’s about the _principle_ of the whole thing, Beca,” Chloe stresses. “Obviously we make enough money to help her out and pay for everything else we need, but she shouldn’t be able to just laze around all day and expect us to take care of her like-like some sort of babysitter! If we don’t give her tough love now and tell her that she needs to go learn how to fend for herself, then who will?”

Silence hangs between the two of them where they’re standing face to face in the kitchen, neither one of them backing down. Beca narrows her eyes for a second longer, before scoffing and turning away. “So much for Bellas for life,” she murmurs under her breath.

Chloe flinches as if she’d been physically struck. “What was that?” she asks, voice dangerously quiet.

Beca opens the refrigerator and pulls out a beer. She avoids looking at Chloe, instead focusing on opening her beverage. “Weren’t you the one in college that preached about always being a Bella family?” she questions. “Aren’t you the one who stayed behind because you loved all of us so much?” Beca takes a swig of beer and looks over at Chloe, suddenly seeming more unsure than angry. “What happened to Bellas for life, dude?”

Chloe opens and closes her mouth for a minute, at a loss for words. Finally, she sighs and sits down hard in a chair at the table. “I still love Amy. I never said that I didn’t love her,” she starts, tired all of a sudden. “She just… she really does need to learn how to provide for herself. What happens when we all inevitably split up one day? What’s she going to do? Go off and mooch off one of the other Bellas? Live on the street when no one will take her in? I don’t want any of that for her.”

Beca sits down in the chair across from Chloe. “And I get that. I _totally_ understand where you’re coming from, Chlo. But isn’t kicking her out the same thing as forcing her to live on the street or pushing her to go live with one of the other girls?”

“I guess so…” Chloe trails off and puts her head in her hands. “I’m just frustrated and don’t know what else we could do.”

They sit in silence for few moments as they both calm down from their emotions. Then, Beca gently reaches up to pull Chloe’s hands away from her face so she can hold them in her own. Chloe looks up and meets her weary eyes with Beca’s steady blue ones.

“I think that kicking her out is just a hair too much too soon,” Beca says, much calmer than she was a few minutes ago. “But I do agree that something needs to be done. I’ll talk to her; try to convince her to find some sort of job that will at least pay for her own private excursions. That way she won’t need to borrow money from us anymore.” Beca rubs her thumbs over the backs of Chloe’s hands. “That sound okay to you?”

Chloe looks down at their joined hands and squeezes Beca’s a little. “Yeah, yeah I guess that sounds alright. We can start small.”

“Okay good,” Beca says. “Are we good?”

“Yeah,” Chloe assures. “We’re good.”

Beca breathes out a sigh in relief. “Good.” She stands up and uses her hold on Chloe’s hands to pull her towards their bed. “Now, pick a movie so that I can have an excuse to cuddle you to make up for fighting with you.”

Chloe laughs and allows herself to be led to the bed. True to Beca’s word, the two of them cuddle up to watch a movie until they fall asleep, their fight long forgotten.

* * *

The door flies open and slams shut so fast that it rattles the pictures on the ceiling a little. Chloe stands still for a moment with her back against the door, all bundled up in her beanie and jackets and boots.

Beca, who on the rare occasion is home before Chloe, looks up from her laptop from where she’s seated at the table. She smiles and pushes her headphones off her ears so that they hang around her neck, but her smile falls when she notices the look on Chloe’s face. “Chlo? Everything alright?”

Chloe only sighs and glances at Beca before she starts peeling off her many layers, throwing her hat and jackets onto the bed and tugging off her boots. She feels numb, like her moves are all on autopilot. After her outer layers are off, she continues on to take off her scrubs.

Beca looks pointedly away as Chloe undresses herself, and only looks at her again when Chloe places herself in the seat across from her, leggings and one of Beca’s hoodies having replaced her work scrubs.

Chloe sighs again. “We had to put down Peanut today.”

Beca’s breath catches. Peanut was Chloe’s favorite puppy at the clinic she worked at. He was a rescue, and was brought in about a month ago needing lots of medical care. His issues must have been too much for him if they’d had to put him down.

“Oh, Chloe. I’m so sorry,” Beca says sincerely. Chloe shrugs and wipes at her slightly runny nose, but doesn’t say anything more.

Beca studies Chloe for a minute before making a decision. She slips the headphones off her neck, then goes to retrieve her phone from its place on the bed and makes her way back over Chloe, thumbing at the screen. “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” starts playing a moment later, and Beca sets her phone down on the table before holding her hand out to Chloe. Chloe stares up at Beca, and Beca waggles her eyebrows down at her as she starts to sing.

“You’re just too good to be true, can’t take my eyes off you,” Beca wiggles her fingers and Chloe takes her hand, fighting off a smile as Beca pulls her to her feet and into her arms. They begin to dance, Beca crooning along to Frankie Valli, and Chloe’s bad mood quickly starts to dissipate. Soon enough, both of them are singing and laughing as Beca leads them in clumsy dance around their tiny kitchen; twirling Chloe around and attempting to dip her several times before giving up and letting Chloe dip her instead.

By the time the song is fading into its ending, Chloe’s side hurts from laughing and the sadness she felt earlier is all gone, replaced instead by such intense joy. Their dance slows down and their faux-swing style switches to more of a hugging while turning in a small circle as Margaret Whiting's “Time After Time” starts to play. Beca circles her arms around Chloe’s waist and Chloe’s arms go around Beca’s shoulders, one hand resting on the back of her neck and the other curled around her shoulder. Chloe leans in and rests her chin on Beca’s shoulder, sighing contently.

They sway along to the music, snow falling outside their windows, and to Chloe it feels like they’re in a snow globe because of how magical it all is. She closes her eyes and turns her head to lay her cheek on Beca’s shoulder, breathing in her familiar scent. The hand on the back of Beca’s neck strokes slow, lazy fingers along her hairline, and Beca tightens her arms around Chloe in response.

And if Chloe places the softest of kisses against Beca’s neck, and if Beca pretends not to notice? Well, no one really needs to know, do they?

* * *

Chloe glances up from her position on the bed to where Beca sits working on her laptop at the table. As if feeling eyes on her, Beca looks up as well. The two make brief eye contact for a moment, though none of them says anything to interrupt the comfortable silence that lays over them.

Beca lets a small smile cross her face before looking back down at her work. Chloe lets her eyes linger a moment longer before looking down as well, a blush rising on her cheeks for reasons unknown.

* * *

Beca slips her hand into Chloe’s on the subway ride home from dinner and smiles up at her.

Chloe smiles back.

Beca squeezes her hand.

Chloe feels her heart flutter.

* * *

The lights go out in their apartment due to a snow storm. Beca rummages around in their cupboards, trying to locate some of the candles they own. Chloe tells her she’s her hero with a teasing tone in her voice. Beca grumbles and though Chloe can’t really make out anything with no lights, she can clearly see the smile and blush on her face through the dark.

* * *

They go to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting ceremony because they live in New York now, so of _course_ they’re going to go see the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting ceremony

The two of them are bundled up in multiple jackets, boots, hats, and gloves, and while Beca thought it was a bit extreme to wear so many layers, Chloe had shut down any of her attempts to wear anything less.

(“Chloe, I can’t put my arms down all the way.”

“Shut up, yes you can. Besides, I don’t want you getting cold and complaining through the entire night.”

“Ugh. Do we even have to go to this?”

“Yes! I’m offended that you’d even _think_ about not experiencing this at least once in your life.”

“I’m only doing this because I love you, you know.”

“I know. And I love you for that.”)

Beca and Chloe fight through the crowds in order to get as close to the tree as possible. It’s about five minutes before the tree is supposed to be lit, and Chloe is practically bouncing up and down with excitement. Every time she sees something that she thinks is leading up to the lighting, she grabs onto Beca’s arm and points at it, to which Beca usually just smiles and says _neat_ or _cool._

(In all honesty, Beca couldn’t care less about all everything going on around them, but it’s making Chloe happy, so therefore it makes her happy.)

In all the excitement going on, Chloe doesn’t notice Beca staring at her until she glances at her to make sure she’s appropriately taking in everything. The intensity in her gaze causes Chloe to take pause and catches her breath for a moment.

In that moment, the crowds fall away around them. The Christmas music playing in the square becomes distant. The countdown that begins sounds muffled to Chloe’s ears.

Beca’s cheeks are rosy, and there are flakes of snow sprinkled in her hair and on her hat. She has a content smile on her face, one that Chloe has noticed is reserved only for her. Her blue eyes must be reflecting the lights above them, because Chloe has never seen them shine so bright.

So caught up in the moment is Chloe that she doesn’t even notice the tree light up, or the crowd cheering, or the choir singing. She’s so transfixed on the sight before her that she doesn’t look away until Beca glances to the side and whispers, “Look up.”

Their shoulders brush as she does, and the view she is met with makes her gasp in awe. The huge Christmas tree that they’ve been standing in front of for the past half hour is all lit up, shining loud and proud for all to see. It’s truly one of the most beautiful things Chloe has ever seen, and she does her best to take it all in.

Then Chloe looks back at Beca, and she sees the way her eyes are bright with wonder, and her mouth hangs open slightly in quiet amazement, and Chloe thinks that maybe she was wrong.

Maybe _Beca_ is the most beautiful thing she has ever seen.

Love fills every one of Chloe’s senses, and she doesn’t really know what to do about it, so instead of doing something rash she just reaches down and laces her fingers with Beca’s. Beca looks over at her, joy eminent on her face, and squeezes the hand in hers. Just once.

With that touch, Chloe thinks Beca might feel the same way. She has no proof, but with that one touch, she felt enough.

* * *

Beca and Chloe stumble home, slightly tipsy, after a New Year’s Eve party. They’re not drunk, but they’re buzzed just enough to use that as an excuse to walk with their arms wrapped around each other.

They had celebrated the New Year in a cozy bar with some people from the studio Beca works at. Amy had gone with them, but disappeared sometime before the clock struck midnight. Chloe and Beca weren’t concerned about her whereabouts, though. They were used to it by now. She would always appear some number of days later with food in hand and a story to tell.

Chloe tightens her grips around Beca’s waist as Beca slips on some ice, keeping her from falling down. The two erupt in giggles as they approach their apartment complex. Beca reclaims her arm from its place around Chloe’s shoulders (where it’s been for the past 45 minutes) and starts digging around in Chloe’s purse for keys.

“Why didn’t you bring your own bag to keep your stuff in again?” Chloe asks her, still giggling.

Beca hums as she continues searching. “Because I know you’re more responsible than me and are therefore less likely to lose it while partying.” She glances up at Chloe with a twinkle and her eye and winks before turning her attention back towards the purse.

Tingles zip through Chloe’s body at Beca’s wink, which is stupid, because it was just a simple wink. Chloe slows them down to a stop right in front of their apartment complex and waits for Beca to find the keys.

“Aha!” Beca victoriously pulls her hand out of the bag, key clutched in between her fingers.

Chloe chuckles at how proud Beca is with herself and is suddenly overwhelmed with affection for the small brunette. Beca looks up at Chloe, smiling, and the air between them suddenly turns serious.

Beca bites her lip and pockets the key. “You know, I think there’s one way to celebrate the new year that we haven’t done yet.”

Chloe raises an eyebrow. “Is that so? And what way is that?” she asks in a teasing tone.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Beca suddenly becomes shy and looks down at her feet, scraping the toe of her boot against the sidewalk. “I’m not sure I remember.”

Chloe doesn’t exactly know what’s happening at the moment, but she’s not about to lose momentum due to Beca feeling shy. “Bec,” she says softly, barely audible in the surprisingly quiet night air.

Beca looks up at Chloe, her eyes filled with too many emotions for Chloe to discern. Chloe’s breath hitches and she suddenly realizes how close they’re standing. Not close enough to touch, but close enough to be able to tell exactly when Beca makes up her mind.

Beca inhales deeply and takes one hesitant step forward, entering Chloe’s atmosphere. It wasn’t much, but it said enough to Chloe.

Closing the remaining distance between them, Chloe cups Beca’s face in both of her cold hands and presses her lips to Beca’s. Chloe’s eyes close and she feels Beca’s hands come to rest on her hips beneath her jacket as she kisses Chloe back.

They trade soft kisses right there, on the sidewalk in front of their sketchy apartment building in New York City, snow falling around them on New Year’s Day. Chloe smiles into their next kiss, and she feels Beca grin as well.

Chloe is the one to end their kiss. She watches Beca’s eyes flutter open as they stay wrapped in each other’s arms.

“Happy New Year, Beca,” Chloe whispers. Beca whispers the same words back to her before closing the gap between them again.

After they go inside, they don’t talk about the kiss. They just go about their nightly routines and go to bed. They don’t talk about it, but Chloe feels something different between them that she knows wasn’t there before.

* * *

It’s a few weeks after their kiss when Chloe wakes up in the middle of one night. She turns onto her side towards Beca and is surprised to see that she’s already awake.

Beca has a strange look on her face. They spend a moment just looking at each other before Beca opens her mouth to say something. She pauses, then says, “You’re my best friend.”

Chloe knew what it was.

Beca is in love.

Chloe slides across the few inches separating them and curls into Beca, laying her head on her chest. Beca sighs in content, wraps her arms around Chloe, and kisses the top of her head.

And just like that, Beca and Chloe were in love. There was no fanfare, no big declaration, no crazy dramatics. It was just about the easiest thing Chloe had ever known. She wasn’t confused, and neither was Beca. Yet somehow, Chloe thinks as she listens to the steady sound of Beca’s heartbeat, she always knew that things would end up this way.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
